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EXPLANATION  OF  SENATE  BILL  No.  292,  FOR  THE  ESTAB¬ 
LISHMENT  AND  MAINTENANCE  OF  COUNTY  FARM- 
LIFE  SCHOOLS  AND  FOR  THE  PROMOTION  OF  AGRI¬ 
CULTURE  AND  HOME-MAKING,  AND  SOME  REASONS 
FOR  ITS  ENACTMENT. 


EXPLANATION  OF  THE  BILL. 

Maintenance. — Five  thousand  dollars  annually  is  provided  for 
maintenance  and  support — $2,500  to  be  supplied  by  State  ap¬ 
propriation  when  all  required  conditions  are  complied  with  by 
the  county  and  townships,  and  $2,500  to  be  supplied  by  the 
county  or  township,  or  both,  by  taxation  or  otherwise. 

Equipment. — Before  any  State  appropriation  is  available,  the 
county,  the  township  or  townships,  in  which  the  school  is  lo¬ 
cated,  or  all  combined,  must  provide  by  donation  or  bond  issue, 
or  both,  the  following  equipment :  a  school  building  with 
recitation  rooms,  laboratories  and  apparatus  necessary  for  effi¬ 
cient  instruction  in  the  prescribed  subjects  of  study;  dormitory 
buildings  with  suitable  accommodations  for  not  less  than  twenty- 
five  boys  and  twenty-five  girls;  a  barn  and  dairy  building  with 
necessary  equipment ;  a  farm  of  not  less  than  twenty-five  acres 
of  good  arable  land,  which  may  be  reduced  to  ten  acres  upon 
recommendation  of  the  board  of  trustees  and  presentation  of 
satisfactory  reasons  therefor.  The  entire  equipment  must  be 
approved  and  accepted,  after  inspection,  by  the  State  Superin¬ 
tendent  of  Public  Instruction.  All  buildings  must  be  located 
on  the  farm  and  constructed  in  accordance  with  plans  approved 
by  the  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  except  that 
a  suitable  and  properly  equipped  school  building  already  con¬ 
structed,  though  not  located  on  the  farm,  may  be  accepted  as 
part  of  the  equipment,  if  located  within  reasonable  and  con¬ 
venient  distance  thereof. 

The  machinery  is  provided  for  an  election  by  the  county  or  by 
any  township  or  townships  to  provide  all  or  any  part  of  the  equip¬ 
ment  and  maintenance  by  taxation  and  bond  issue,  if  necessary. 
The  maximum  bond  issue  by  county  and  township  cannot,  how¬ 
ever,  exceed  $25,000  for  equipment.  If  an  election  for  equip¬ 
ment  and  maintenance  be  held  by  the  county  and  fail,  any 


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township  or  any  two  or  more  contiguous  townships  may  hold 
an  election  and  provide  the  necessary  equipment  and  secure  the 
farm-life  school.  In  that  event,  the  board  of  trustees  must  be 
selected  from  the  township  or  townships,  and  free  tuition  is 
restricted  to  the  residents  of  said  township  or  townships  so 
providing  for  the  equipment  and  maintenance  of  the  school. 
Provision  is  made,  however,  for  the  county  to  take  over  at  any 
time  any  farm-life  school  that  may  be  thus  secured  by  a  town¬ 
ship  or  townships,  and  make  it  a  farm-life  school  for  the  en¬ 
tire  county  by  assuming,  by  election,  the  tax  and  bond  issue 
for  equipment  and  maintenance  assumed  by  the  township  or 
towmships,  and  relieving,  by  county  bond  issue  and  taxation, 
the  township  or  townships  of  obligations  therefor. 

Management  and  Location. — The  school  must  be  under  the 
control  and  the  management  of  the  board  of  trustees,  consisting 
of  one  member  from  each  township  in  the  county,  appointed,  by 
the  county  board  of  education,  with  the  county  superintendent 
as  an  ex  officio  member  and  secretary  thereof.  This  board  also 
has  authority  to  locate  the  school,  after  inviting  and  receiving 
bids  from  the  various  townships,  taking  into  consideration  de¬ 
sirability  and  suitability  of  location  as  well  as  the  financial  aid 
for  maintenance  and  equipment  offered  by  the  various  town¬ 
ships.  The  school  cannot  be  located  in  any  city  or  in  any 
town  of  more  than  one  thousand  inhabitants  nor  within  three 
miles  of  the  corporate  limits  of  any  city  or  town  of  more  than 
five  thousand  inhabitants.  This  insures  its  location  in  a  rural 
community  and  farm-life  atmosphere,  allowing,  however,  the 
utilization,  by  donation,  of  excellent  and  suitable  school  build¬ 
ings  in  some  of  the  smaller  villages.  All  other  buildings,  how¬ 
ever,  are  required  in  all  cases  to  be  located  on  the  farm. 

Aim  and  Location. — To  prepare  boys  for  agricultural  pur¬ 
suits  and  farm-life  and  to  prepare  girls  for  home-making  and 
housekeeping  on  the  farm ;  to  conduct  agricultural  and  farm- 
life  demonstration  and  extension  work  throughout  the  county, 
in  cooperation  with  the  State  and  National  Departments  of 
Agriculture  and  the  State  College  of  Agriculture  and  Me¬ 
chanic  Arts ;  to  hold  township  and  district  meetings  for  the 
farmers  and  farmers’  wives  in  all  parts  of  the  county  from 
time  to  time;  to  cooperate  with  the  county  superintendent  of 


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public  instruction  and  the  public  school  teachers  in  stimulating, 
directing,  and  supervising  farm-life  work  in  the  public  high 
schools  and  elementary  schools,  and  in  providing  instruction  in 
such  work  for  the  teachers  through  the  county  teachers’  asso¬ 
ciation  and  through  special  short  courses  of  study  for  public 
school  teachers ;  to  provide,  also,  at  said  school  short  courses 
ot  study  in  farm-life  subjects  for  adult  farmers  and  their 
wives,  and  to  hold  at  the  school  county  meetings  for  farmers 
and  their  wives  for  instruction  and  demonstration  work  from 
time  to  time. 

High  School  Department. — Provision  has  been  made  for  a 
high  school  department  to  be  maintained  in  connection  with 
each  county  farm-life  school  that  may  not  be  established  at 
the  same  place  with  some  now  existing  county  high  school,  and 
for  the  merging  of  the  county  high  school  into  the  high  school 
department  of  the  farm-life  school  in  case  tjie  farm-life  school 
be  located  at  the  same  place  with  a  now  existing  rural  high 
school.  This  high  school  department  is  to  receive  for  its  main¬ 
tenance  the  same  appropriation  from  county  and  State  as  is 
now  provided  for  a  first-class  public  high  school  under  the 
public  high  school  act,  and  is  to  be  under  the  complete  control 
and  management  of  the  board  of  trustees  and  the  superintend¬ 
ent  of  the  county  farm-life  school,  providing  instruction  in  all 
English  branches  in  the  same  classes  for  students  preparing 
for  farm  life  at  home  and  students  preparing  for  college.  Tui¬ 
tion,  however,  is  to  be  free  to  all  students  in  any  farm-life 
school  and  to  all  others  attending  the  same  residing  m  the 
county,  and  the  expense  for  hoard,  etc.,  cannot  exceecr  actual 
cost.  Provision  is  also  made  for  admission  of  students  from 
other  counties  upon  payment  of  moderate  tuition,  sufficient  to 
cover  actual  expenses,  to  be  fixed  by  the  board  of  trustees. 

Qualification  of  Teachers. — As  will  be  seen  by  reading  section 
12  of  the  bill,  provisions  are  made  to  guarantee  the  employment 
of  teachers  properly  qualified  by  education,  special  training, 
and  practical  experience  for  the  work  required. 

REASONS  FOR  ITS  ENACTMENT. 

More  than  eight-tenths  of  the  population  of  North  Carolina 
live  in  the  country  and  follow  agricultural  pursuits.  More 

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4 


than  eight-tenths  of  the  children  of  North  Carolina  are  coun¬ 
try  children.  More  than  95  per  cent  of  these  never  enter  col¬ 
lege  and  never  receive  any  preparation  for  citizenship  or  for 
making  a  living  except  what  they  receive  in  the  public  schools 
of  their  counties  and  communities.  These  farmers  and  these 
children  are  entitled  to  better  provision  at  home  for  better  prep¬ 
aration  for  the  life  that  most  of  them  will  spend  and  ought 
to  spend  on  the  farm,  in  the  country,  and  for  such  education  in 
the  school  as  will  tend  to  turn  them  to  country  life,  interest 
them  in  it,  and  prepare  them  to  live  it  more  comfortably,  more 
contentedly,  and  more  happily. 

The  farmers  and  the  farmers’  children  are  entitled  to  be  given 
a  chance  to  provide  for  themselves  by  taxation  or  donation  (for 
the  chief  burden  of  the  maintenance  and  equipment  of  the 
farm-life  school  will  fall  on  them)  these  farm-life  schools 
adapted  to  the 'needs  of  the  children,  the  environment  sur¬ 
rounding  them,  and  affording  better  preparation  for  their  life- 
work.  All  they  ask  is  a  chance  to  help  themselves  to  do  this, 
and  a  little  appropriation  of  $2,500  annually  from  the  State 
Treasury  to  stimulate  and  encourage  this  self-help.  Shall  they 
not  have  this  chance? 

Some  of  the  Benefits  of  Such  Schools. — The  country  farm-life 
school  would  become  an  intellectual,  industrial,  and  agricul¬ 
tural  dynamo  for  the  whole  county.  The  instruction  and  train¬ 
ing  of  scores  of  country  boys  and  girls  annually  in  the  best 
methods  of  farming,  dairying,  orcharding,  stock  judging  and 
stock  raising;  the  handling  and  marketing  of  crops,  cooking, 
sewing,  and  other  subjects  pertaining  to  housekeeping  and 
home-making  on  the  farm,  would  send  them  back  to  the  farm 
prepared  to  make  farming  more  profitable,  farm-life  more 
livable,  farm  homes  more  comfortable  and  more  beautiful. 
These  in  their  various  communities  would  become  sources  of 
inspiration  and  disseminators  of  agricultural  information  and 
objective  demonstration  for  their  neighbors,  thereby  greatly 
aiding  in  the  improvement  of  agricultural  conditions  of  the 
entire  county  and  in  increasing  the  wealth,  the  taxable  values 
of  all  property,  and  the  general  prosperity  and  progress  of  the 
county  and  the  State.  In  a  word,  the  boys  trained  in  such  a 
school  would  become,  in  their  communities,  eloquent  apostles 


and  living  examples  of  better  and  more  profitable  farming,  and 
the  girls  so  trained  would  become,  in  their  homes,  living  epis¬ 
tles  known  and  read  of  all  in  the  sweetest  and  finest  of  all  arts, 
the  art  of  making  a  comfortable  and  beautiful  home  in  the 
best  environment  in  the  world  for  such  a  home — the  very  heart 
of  nature. 

Such  a  school,  in  the  second  place,  could  and  would,  through 
its  faculty,  carry  on  most  valuable  extension  and  demonstration 
work  among  the  farmers  and  their  wives  in  all  parts  of  the 
county,  meeting  with  them  from  time  to  time  in  their  com¬ 
munities  for  instruction  and  demonstration  in  all  things  per¬ 
taining  to  their  farm  life  and  work,  in  this  way  carrying  to 
them  the  new  truth  and  the  new  light,  and  pointing  them  to  the 
better  way.  From  time  to  time,  these  farmers  and  their  wives 
could  and  would  be  gathered  about  the  school  for  instruction, 
for  inspiration,  for  socializing,  for  organization  and  coopera¬ 
tion. 

In  this  and  other  ways  such  a  school  would  indeed  prove  a 
continual  dynamo  of  agricultural  interest  and  farm-life  in¬ 
struction  and  inspiration.  Through  it  the  larger  agencies  of 
the  A.  and  M.  College,  the  State  Department  of  Agriculture, 
and  the  National  Department  of  Agriculture  could  operate 
more  effectively  and  successfully,  and  the  interest  aroused  by 
these  larger  agencies  could  be  husbanded,  applied,  and  per¬ 
manently  continued.  The  work  of  the  school  could  be  cor¬ 
related  with  the  college,  and  many  a  boy  and  girl  would  be 
inspired  by  the  taste  of  better  things  to  drink  more  deeply  at 
the  larger  fountain  ever  flowing  in  copious  streams  in  their 
colleges  and  to  prepare  themselves  for  splendid  leadership. 

Such  a  school  would  become  a  county  training  school  for  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  rural  school  teachers,  in  agricultural  as 
well  as  literary  subjects.  The  head  of  the  agricultural  depart¬ 
ment  of  such  a  school  would  be  made  the  supervisor  of  agricul¬ 
tural  instruction  in  all  the  public  schools  of  the  county,  and  in 
cooperation  with  the  county  superintendent,  through  instruction 
of  the  county  teachers  in  the  meetings  of  their  county  teachers’ 
association,  and  through  visitation  of  the  schools  with  the 
county  superintendent  from  time  to  time,  could  aid  in  creating 
a  farm-life  atmosphere  in  the  rural  schools  and  in  bringing  into 


6 


them  such  simple  elementary  instruction  in  agriculture  as 
would  be  made  practical  and  effective  through  intelligent  and 
interested  teachers  under'  intelligent  instruction.  It  would  be 
altogether  possible  and  practicable  for  successful  work  in  agri¬ 
culture,  cooking,  sewing,  and  other  housekeeping  subjects  to  be 
carried  on  under  supervision  of  the  teachers  in  the  county  farm- 
life  school  on  a  smaller  scale  in  other  high  schools  of  the  county, 
and  perhaps  in  a  number  of  the  other  public  schools,  especially 
in  the  local-tax  schools  with  two  or  more  teachers. 

The  whole  lump  would  finally  be  leavened.  Intelligence 
would  demand  and  more  money  would  command  for  country 
life,  good  roads,  good  schools,  good  churches,  good  vehicles,  and 
the  thousands  of  comforts  and  conveniences  that  break  up  the 
isolation  of  country  life  and  bring  into  it  all  the  best  of  city  life 
without  its  worst.  Thus,  indeed,  by  training  the  children  to 
find  and  make  the  most  of  the  countless  treasures  God  has  hid¬ 
den  in  soil  and  stream,  in  rock  and  tree,  in  plant  and  air  and 
cloud,  would  the  country  life  be  transformed  into  the  ideal 
life,  and  country  men  and  women  enter  into  the  rich  inherit¬ 
ance  prepared  from  the  beginning  for  them — a  healthful  life 
of  freedom,  fullness,  sweetness,  peace,  and  beauty.  Then  will 
men  desire  it  more,  seek  it  more,  and  live  it  more  contentedly 
and  happily. 

Some  will  say  that  the  picture  is  overdrawn.  Hot  so. 
It  but  inadequately  portrays  what  we  have  already  seen 
the  beginning  of  in  other  favored  portions  of  our  own  land. 
Only  through  the  portals  of  such  a  school  as  we  have  endeav¬ 
ored  to  describe  can  our  own  country  boys  and  girls  enter  into 
and  possess  this  promised  land  lying  all  about  them.  Shall  we 
provide  it,  or  shall  we  not  ?  The  cost  of  the  schools  will  be  as 
nothing  compared  with  the  richness  in  money  and  in  life  that 
they  will  bring  through  the  passing  years.  If  we  can  but  start 
them  now  and  set  them  at  their  everlasting  work,  the  battle 
will  be  won,  for  the  people,  seeing  and  enjoying  their  benefi¬ 
cent  work,  will  be  more  able  and  more  willing  to  give  for  their 
maintenance  and  enlargement  as  the  years  go  by.  These  schools 
will  become  an  organic  part  of  the  county  school  system,  and 
will  bind  the  farmers  in  interest  and  enthusiasm  more  closely 


I 


to  the  whole  system  and  make  it  easier  to  secure  the  means 
and  the  interest  for  the  successful  maintenance  of  the  entire 
system. 

County  schools  of  this  sort  are  in  successful  operation  in 
many  States  of  the  Middle  West.  Perhaps  the  most  successful 
are  those  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  which  are  very  similar  to 
those  provided  for  in  this  bill  for  North  Carolina.  About  ten 
years  ago  they  began  with  one  such  school  in  Wisconsin.  It 
took  hold  of  life  and  conditions  in  the  country  as  they  existed, 
busied  itself  with  the  practical  everyday  problems  and  tasks 
of  farm  life  and  work  and  with  finding  practical  and  more 
profitable  ways  of  doing  these.  It  had  to  win  its  way  slowly. 
The  farmers  of  the  countv  in  which  it  was  located  had  to  he 
convinced  of  its  value  and  necessity  by  results  obtained,  by 
the  practical  benefits  they  observed  and  derived  from  its  work. 

As  the  farmers  of  the  county  in  which  it  was  located  saw 
and  felt  the  uplifting  and  transforming  power  of  its  work  in 
their  homes  and  on  their  farms,  they  rallied  enthusiastically  to 
its  support,  and  it  became  their  pride.  Farmers  of  other  coun¬ 
ties  began  to  take  notice  of  its  successful  work,  and  some  of  the 
more  intelligent  of  them  began  to  demand  a  similar  school  and 
to  work  for  it.  There  are  now  twenty-seven  of  these  schools  in 
different  sections  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin.  They  form  the 
most  effective  means  for  disseminating  among  the  masses  of  the 
people  a  knowledge  of  farming  and  farm  life,  that  has  been 
worth  already  millions  of  dollars  in  increased  products  on  ac¬ 
count  of  their  improved  quality;  and  Wisconsin  has  been  trans¬ 
formed  into  one  of  the  leading  agricultural  States  of  this  coun¬ 
try,  though  her  natural  advantages  of  soil  and  climate  do  not 
compare  with  those  of  North  Carolina.  What  these  schools 
have  been  worth  in  the  transformation  of  the  life  in  the  farm 
homes,  through  the  knowledge  and  training  given  to  hundreds 
of  country  girls  in  these  schools,  cannot  he  measured  in  paltry 
dollars.  These  schools,  therefore,  are  no  longer  an  experiment, 
hut  a  demonstrated  success  in  other  States. 

The  Demand  for  It. — Forty  thousand  farmers,  through  the 
farmers’  unions  of  the  State,  have  asked  for  these  schools,  have 
indorsed  this  bill,  and  through  committees  of  the  State  Farm¬ 
ers’  Union  have  earnestly  presented  to  the  General  Assembly 


8 


their  request  for  its  enactment.  The  teachers  and  county  su¬ 
perintendents  of  public  instruction  of  the  State,  by  resolutions 
and  committees  of  the  North  Carolina  Teachers’  Assembly  and 
of  the  State  Association  of  County  Superintendents,  have  unan¬ 
imously  asked  for  these  schools  and  urged  the  passage  of  this 
bill. 


